Posts Tagged ‘food’

The influence of Japanese food on American cuisine is huge – and we were excited to experience the real deal while we were in Tokyo. We weren’t disappointed! The food was definitely reminiscent of the things we’d find in the States, but much more emphasis was placed on the non-sushi items available. Of course, sushi was to be had:

I’ll start this post out by saying that almost everything we tasted in Singapore was excellent. Singapore is not a particularly cheap place, but we were able to do pretty well by mostly eating at our local food court. We stayed in Chinatown and there were plenty of tasty morsels to try!

We found that the best strategy was to go to the food court (kind of like a mix between a market and a food court you would find in a mall here), look around until we found a longish line and then get in that line and order whatever everyone else was eating. Singapore has very strict regulations about food handling and cleanliness, so pretty much anywhere food is being sold it’s likely to be edible.

For Part Two of my Last Big Thing, I wanted to make great use of our scuba certifications from Thailand and go down into the deep again. This time it would be off the eastern tip of Borneo. I wanted to go to the world-famous Sipadan site, a volcanic island that drops down to ocean depths of 800 or more meters in a very short distance, but didn’t plan ahead enough to go. Sipadan is now under regulation, and it appears that the best scuba shops don’t get nearly as many permits as some of the shops that are, say, generous to the local government. We wanted to go with Scuba Junkie (no relation to Scuba Junction from Koh Tao) which had a great reputation and a beautiful island resort at a great price – but they couldn’t get us permits for the famous spot. So we dived beautiful Mabul Island instead, and while it may not have had huge pelagics in town it did amaze us with beautiful wildlife! (more…)

As I said in the last post, we each picked one thing to do before the year was over. My pick was going to Borneo! I had heard great things about the island, and after researching it a bit more, three things in particular stood out for me. First, I wanted to see Kuala Lumpur – it is a really big city made famous by the twin Petronas towers. Second, I wanted to scuba dive Sipadan, known as one of the finest sites in the world to dive, with sharks and turtles everywhere. Third, the Kinabatangan River has loads of wildlife that is easily visible because of the palm oil plantations that are slowly removing all the jungle habitat around the river (only 1km on each side is protected). These three things turned out to make a really great Malaysian adventure! (more…)

I had decided, before we arrived, that the main purpose of my trip to Vietnam would be to sample as much local food as humanly possible, and to learn to cook some of it! Even though our trip was a whirlwind, I am confident that I succeeded in my goal. (more…)

Of course it’s hard work to get certified in anything! Well, that’s what we told ourselves before embarking for a few days’ R&R on the other side of Koh Tao. On the east coast there are several bays which have far less development than fancy Sairee Beach. We chose one called Tanote Bay, renowned for its snorkeling and relatively low-key atmosphere. We scored a bungalow on the beach (!) for only $12 per night. Since we purchased our own masks and snorkels, this was all we needed to have a relaxing snorkeling rest.

While we were walking around town near our hotel, we came across a restaurant called May Kaidee’s Vegetarian which offered cooking classes at a pretty reasonable price. We agreed to eat at the restaurant, and then to take the cooking class if we liked the food. Needless to say, we loved the food! We had super delicious Tom Kha, a coconut milk soup that is spicy, sweet and sour, and from that moment we knew we’d be learning how to cook there.

Our first morning in Bangkok we set out exploring. It was hot, humid, and felt like there could be a thunderstorm at any minute. Our first order of business was finding something to eat. We were stoked because we both LOVE Thai food and were so ready to try the real deal. And what we found did not disappoint. We ended up at a vegetarian restaurant (and cooking school, but more on that later!) and had our first (of many) wonderful Thai meals. Absolutely delicious.

Bangkok is an interesting city. It has it’s own particular smell to start with. A kind of combination between tasty, tasty Thai cooking and open sewers. It’s not the cleanest city and it is extremely hazardous trying to cross the street. In fact we would walk several blocks out of our way in order to cross the street sometimes. But, everyone is very friendly and we found it to have a really good feel to it. And did I mention that the food is AMAZING?!

Since we had a full week in Hong Kong, we made sure to find the local swing scene and go to the dances. There are two regular dances per week in Hong Kong, run by Hong Kong Swings, and we went to both. The first was a Sunday dance at a BBQ restaurant and bar called “Blue Smoke” – interestingly, there is another version of Blue Smoke in NYC which I’ve eaten at while seeing a Maria Schneider concert. This venue was quite small and only a handful of dancers showed up, but we managed to have a great time nevertheless.

Wednesday night was a much bigger venue, set at a bar called Grappa’s Cellar, which had a great vibe and a lot more space. They essentially cleared the main dining portion of the restaurant to make room for the dance, and there were tables set aside for stuff and for people to sit at. We really worked up a sweat at this venue.

Since we wanted to meet the HK Swings people off the dance floor as well, we went afterwards to an ice bar near Grappa’s. There we had a number of hijinks including meeting American soldiers who worked at the US Embassy, having drinks with them, nearly getting into a fight with them as they got drunker. Also interesting was the bartender’s ability to make 7-layer shots and play a game where 4 random bottles from the bar are selected and then the bartender makes a drink from them.

We had a lot of fun, and made it home safely despite being rather off our heads!

While we were in Hong Kong, I had a mission – eat as much delicious food as possible. While in California I had developed a taste for Dim Sum and since this area is where it all started we mainly ate dim sum.

So the day after we arrived we decided to go to a Michelin Starred Dim Sum Restaurant: Tim Ho Wan. While it all sounds very fancy, it is just a cheap dim sum shack in the middle of Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district. The trick is, you have to go 2-3 hours early and get a number! It is all very bizarre. Anyway, we got there, got our number and were told that we had at least 2 hours so we left and decided to walk around for a while.